Elements of Ageism 2: Missing out on activities through age self-consciousness

Ageism comes in many forms. We examine several of them in this series of four research reports about older Australians’ experiences of ageism.

Ageism can include explicit discrimination or exclusion of a person because of their age. This is often the result of negative stereotyping or prejudices against certain age groups.

These behaviours and assumptions can in turn be reinforced by popular culture, including ageist jokes and cliched media representations of older people.

Unfortunately, ageism can also infect the inner worlds of older people, causing them to feel overly self-conscious about their age. This report examines that angle on ageism.

In 2024 we asked respondents to the National Seniors Social Survey if there were any activities that they would like to try but had not done because of age self-consciousness.

In total, 2600 people wrote a comment that answered the question. While two-thirds of them said ‘no’, the remaining third (839 people) said yes – they had excluded themselves from some activities for this and related reasons.